Physics graduate school in the UK or Canada

[tiyusufaly]

Hi all,

I have a friend who wants to get a PhD in Physics, and ultimately wants to be a tenured professor at a university or smaller college in the USA.

He is considering going to graduate school in the UK or Canada. He wants to know if this will make it harder for him to find a tenure track position or postdoc once he is done with his PhD.

He is currently looking at Cambridge, Imperial College, King's College in the UK, and University of Toronto, McGill, UBC, Waterloo in Canada. Does anyone know of any other very strong physics PhD programs in the UK or Canada (he strongly prefers a metropolitan area, ie a place like Toronto or London)?

Thanks in advance!

 

[cristo]

Cambridge is hardly a "metropolitan area!" I wouldn't rule out the universities at other large cities in the UK though. With respect to which university; it depends upon what specifically he wants to do his PhD in, since universities specialise in different areas-- Physics is a rather large subject!

 

[tiyusufaly]

He is very interested in condensed matter theory, and is really looking to do that for his research. And, while he prefers a metropolitan area, if there is a particularly good school that is more suburban or rural, he would be willing to consider it.

 

[Sojourner01]

Realise that Cambridge and Oxford as towns are small. Of course, there's plenty going on because they're both affluent and highly cultured, but neither could be called the 'big city'.

All of the London colleges have a very good reputation, but which would be suitable depends what they have research programmes in.

 

[oedipa maas]

Waterloo isn't exactly the Big Smoke either. UBC and U of T are very good for CMT.

PS, does your friend have UK citizenship and meet the residency requirements? A PhD in the UK could be rather expensive otherwise.